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There's compelling arguments either way. On one hand, this is a pretty naked attempt to hit at China and control the flow of the US government's desired information.
On the other hand, the legislation isn't technically a ban, but a forced divestment of a corporate asset. The power of the government to force the breakup, dissolution, or divestment of corporate entities is the basis of US antitrust law, and is well established.
It's an interesting case.
I imagine that our (U.S.) government's case resides primarily on the premise that the state may exercise the ability to force divestment of a company with foreign ownership.
These powers are granted by the National Defense Authorization Act which seeks to prevent imminent national and private security vulnerabilities being exploited by foreign adversaries and agents; the actors here would be specifically the CCP and their intelligence and military apparatus' shell companies and PMCs.
The precedents set by U.S. Anti-Trust laws support their position, but the primary argument in the state's defense are the powers granted by the NDAA.
I'm only speculating.
On the other hand, the legislation isn’t technically a ban, but a forced divestment of a corporate asset.
this reminds me of how democrats marketed don't ask/don't tell as a "compromise" when in reality military policy already mandated that any and all hints of "non-hetero-ness" on service members must be investigated and dishonorably discharged if they were discovered to be lgbt.
like don't ask / don't tell, the forced divestment is true, but it's not the reason and the devil is hidden in the details.
in case you don't already know: force divestment isn't a real option because 1) the american government already knows that the chinese government block it and 2) bytedance uses the same algorithm across all of their social media companies so giving away the secret sauce to a competitor is a bad idea when tiktok in the united states makes a relatively small portion of bytedance's revenue.
They literally said they want tiktok gone cz they can't control the narrative: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/07/israel-al-jazeera-us-tiktok-ban
The power of the government to force the breakup, dissolution, or divestment of corporate entities is the basis of US antitrust law, and is well established.
Unless of course the monopoly holder is an american corporation. Then it’s a good monopoly. We’re living in the next gilded age simply because people “forgot” monopolies are bad and those laws remain unused against giants like google, amazon, meta and many many more.
Are you forgetting that there are currently antitrust lawsuits going against both Amazon and Google? The current administration is absolutely in favor of breaking up monopolies, regardless of where the company is.
the current administration will go and somehow big corpos will prevail. The politicians only do what the rich allow them to do. The US even has legal corruption.
It's at least a positive step that an attempt is being made. We need antitrust to have teeth again.
If the current administration loses in November, then yeah, it's pretty likely that Apple, Google, and Amazon will continue to amass more power.
Sounds like a pretty solid reason to vote for retaining the current administration, yeah? Some check on power v. no check on power?
And Apple.
Why does the US even have to hear a case where China wants to sue them? It seems like something where they should just be like "nah. No thanks".
China isn't suing the US, TikTok is
Ok. Chinese *business.
Because foreign owned businesses with US domestic operations have legal standing within the US.
Ya wanna know the best way the US can fight propaganda? Take steps to enact real change in the current quality of life for the middle/lower class here. When people aren't fighting to live, it is easier to overlook the current governmental issues. Not saying that complacency is what people should be fighting for, but it is legitimately the best way for the government to fight foreign adversary's propaganda.
That won't fight propaganda, because propaganda doesn't have to have any basis in reality. It can be nothing but straw men and Potemkin villages. You can literally lie, and it's going to take far, far more effort to debunk the lie than it would be to simply prevent the lie from propagating in the first place.
The believability of that lie is tipped by the reality we live in. I could say, "if we had communism, the clouds would be made of cotton candy." Nobody would believe me. If I said, "I see you are having major housing issues. look at _____, they don't have housing issues, so why don't you adopt their political ideology?" The US govt actively avoiding improving living conditions opens up tons of those opportunities.
Yeah, and, on the other hand, turning around and pointing out the reality that _____ does have major housing issues, and that they're in many ways worse than what we experience, and that their gov't is even less responsive to fixing real, serious problems than ours is, well, that's going to take far longer than lying about the housing conditions in _____.
My point is that improving quality of life directly FIGHTS propaganda. I am not pushing for any particular ideology here or saying a particular ideology, like communism or capitalism, will solve all of our problems.
...I feel like you're not hearing me.
You can simply lie about the material conditions of life in other places, under other regimes, and that becomes propaganda itself. If everyone in the US had their very own tiny home on a 1/10ac plot, and TikTok started pushing videos about how everyone, even the meanest beggar, in _____ had a palatial mansion of a home with the best and flashiest new tech, etc., you would have the same effect. It doesn't even have to be that material conditions in any given place are necessarily bad, you just have to make it appear that everyone living in _____ is better, and you'll create the same discontent.
I feel like you really overestimate how greedy the average person is. I don't think most people expect the government to give you a mansion. I feel it is a reasonable position that the government should not allow investment firms to push the average person out of the housing market because the firm wants endless growth. I feel this way because of the current housing crisis. If the crisis did not exist, I would probably not be looking for answers as to why I cannot afford a house with a full time job.
I feel like you really overestimate how greedy the average person is.
You vastly underestimate it.
A minimum wage worker now has a vastly better lot in life than 99% of laborers from the immediate post-WWI era (but prior to the Great Depression); better housing, better food, better healthcare, and so on. A minimum wage worker right now lives in far, far better circumstances than any kind of subsistence living. But that's not what people see. People see other people around them, compare themselves to what other people have, and determine if what they have is fair and just based on what they see. Why do you think we have so many problems with conspicuous consumerism? No one 'needs' a luxury car, and very, very few people need a lifted Ram 3500, and yet people feel driven (pun not intended) to buy them because that's what they 'deserve' based on what they see peers driving. If people wanted cars based on real need, then Fiats and Smart Fortwo cars would dominate the landscape.
People living outside their means does not mean they expect the government to fund that life style. Your argument is that improving quality of life does not decrease the effectiveness of propaganda because people are too greedy, right?
It is. It's blatant censorship.
And we know why they are censoring. They don't like that certain politics are being spread.